Iran Elected to Top U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Post

Daniel Halper

"Although the U.N. conference website and summary fail to name the 15 members elected to the bureau on July 3rd, UN Watch has discovered that the countries elected to the five regional groups include Iran, Japan, and South Korea for the Asian group; Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria for Africa; Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Ukraine for Eastern Europe; Australia, Netherlands and Switzerland for the Western Europe & Others Group; and Mexico and two others for Latin America," U.N. Watch reports. "(See U.N. webcast here, announcing election of Iran at minute 4:45.)"

The U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty conference "promises to deliver a new agreement to regulate the transfer of arms," according to the watchdog group. The conference runs almost the entire month of July.

In a statement, U.N. watch executive director Hillel Neuer says, “Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post regulating the transfer of guns and bombs. ... This is like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud on the stock market. And the U.N.’s scandalous choice of Iran is exactly why we fear that Syria’s declared bid for a U.N. Human Rights Council seat is not impossible.”